Final Thoughts on the Olympics

1. Beijing ... the first of many.
China put on a great show. From the opening to the closing ceremonies everything seemed to be perfectly choreographed and executed. The pollution was a non story and they had a reported 1.7 million volunteers. The volunteers were doing everything from directing traffic, helping tourists, security and cheerleaders for all Olympic participants. In my brief lifetime it has felt that the Olympics have been in the U.S. all the time ('84 Summer, '92 Summer, '02 Winter). Maybe China will and should be more frequent hosts.

2. No love for the Paralympic and Special Olympics.
NBC tried to manufacture heart felt, human interest stories throughout the Olympic coverage. Instead of contrived stories of overcoming the "odds" couldn't we watch true heroic stories? Couldn't NBC devote a weekend to cover the Paralympic Games or Special Olympics? Would it hurt ratings so much to replace the flood of reality and senseless comedies with some coverage of true human interest stories? Both the Paralympic and Special Olympic events are covered in the fall. And I know the fall seasons are dominated by American Football, but NBC doesn't have a TV football contract. Tape delay a couple of events to cut costs and have some meaningful programming on a Saturday morning.

3. Medal Count Insight.
Generally the medal count is stupid. Sure China and the U.S won the most medals ... they should. Can China or the US claim victory when a island with about 1/300th the population of the US and 1/2000th the population of China stole the track and field show during the second week of the Olympics. I think it is far more enlightening to see the trends in the medal count. Draw your own conclusions and justifications.

In 1984 ... when I first remember the Olympics the top 15 counties in the medal count standings were. Country - Total (Gold Medals)

1 United States - 174 (83)
2 Romania - 53 (20)
3 West Germany – 59 (17)
4 China – 32 (15)
5 Italy – 32 (14)
6 Canada – 44 (10)
7 Japan – 32 (10)
8 New Zealand – 11 (8)
9 Yugoslavia – 18 (7)
10 South Korea - 19 (6)
11 Great Britain – 37 (5)
12 France – 28 (5)
13 Netherlands – 13 (5)
14 Australia – 24 (4)
15 Finland - 12 (4)

In 2008 the standings were ...
1 China - 100 (51)
2 United States - 110 (36)
3 Russia Federation – 72 (23)
4 Great Britain – 47 (17)
5 Germany – 41 (16)
6 Australia – 46 (14)
7 Korea – 31 (13)
8 Japan – 25 (9)
9 Italy – 28 (8)
10 France - 40 (7)
11 Ukraine – 27 (7)
12 Netherlands – 16 (7)
13 Jamaica – 11 (6)
14 Spain – 18 (5)
15 Kenya - 14 (5)

It is interesting to see China's rise, the 'new' Countries, the 'gone' countries, and everything in between. The world has changed dramatically in 24 years. And shamefully, these events barely register in my daily life and daily conversation.

To both of my avid readers ... next I have to address Barack and McCain and media coverage of the most important election of our lives.